Labyrinth Eighteen years past
by Willow Redfern
Summary: Eighteen years have past since Jareth and Sarah's last meeting within the Labyrinth. In that time, Sarah has created a sane or at least normal life for herself involving art, her agent and her brother, Toby.
1. The Painting

Sarah stood paint splattered in front of her newest canvas. Wiping a hand over her nose, she left a blueish smudge there, but remained completely oblivious to the fact as she reached upwards to rub in a little more of the color into the top right hand corner of the piece. She had been working on it for the better part of the day. Since she had woken that morning, it had been like she had not been able to get the image left in her head out again. There had seemed no other logical way but to paint it out, but so far, all that had led to was this insatiable sense of drive that had left the image stuck in her mind even firmer than when she had begun this.  
  
Not that she minded, however. Quite the opposite! She hadn't had anything like this coming forth from her in the longest time, and it felt, well, quite liberating! She felt free, like nothing else but her art was able to make her feel.  
  
With the back of her wrist, she wiped stray hairs falling out from the haphazard ponytail she had irritably tied a couple of hours ago when her hands and fingers had become far too grimy to continue pushing back hair behind her ears. Without realizing it, she had gone back to pushing hair behind her ears and she slowed down in her driven artistry, and stepped back a little to view the result thus far.  
  
It was every bit as beautiful as she had seen it in her mind's eye. Of course, there were little imperfections that her artist's eye was picking up on, but that was life. That was nature; that little imperfection that spoke out and said 'I've been put here just because I am and not for any greater purpose'.  
  
The leaves fallen from the spidery trees in the background were the perfect examples of that. Behind them, from about three quarters up the page to the very top, the horizon was the painted around the trees. The ground towards the bottom of the canvas was almost colorless, except for the hints of color here and there that hinted that the present wasteland could possibly become oh so much more.  
  
Sarah loved it. Looking at it, she saw symbolized the future of an ignorant Earth in decades to come. She was almost finished already, but the finishing touches had to wait until the next morning, when the layers of paint already painted were dry. Detail would play the most important statement in the picture, and Sarah wasn't about to ruin it's potential by rushing it.  
  
Determined, she turned away from the canvas. No matter what, she swore, she was done with the painting tonight. Anything else that needed fixing up would still be there waiting for her in the morning the next day. For now. she wondered what her agent would think of her newest work. True, it was quite different to her usual work, but she believed that Caroline would appreciate it. Maybe it would even place in the competition that was coming up at the end of this season. Sarah sighed. The idea of having her work hanging up in a gallery, as was part of the prize offered to those artworks that were placed, was some of the stuff that made up Sarah's nightly dreams.  
  
The other part was made up of something she would never paint. No matter how much the images stained her mind. They were dreams of a well endowed, white haired man with mismatching colored eyes. Sarah smiled grimly to herself as his image was conjured up in her mind once again, close as ever to be called upon. There was not a day that went past that she did not remember what she had been offered those 8 years ago. She had done more than her fair share wondering if it would have been so bad to have given herself totally to him for all that he offered. There was no denying that it had been a great amount!  
  
However, right there was the reason that she appreciated her artwork so much. It was the only thing that she had found in 8 years that had successfully been able to pull her mind out from the dregs of self induced reverie made up of all those could have beens that really couldn't have been.  
  
Come to think of it, there really didn't seem any good reason not to call Caroline up right now and talk to her about her latest work of art. After all, she had Caro's homeline number, and they considered each other friends as well as artist and agent. Sarah's mind was decided. She was going to call Caroline. Maybe even invite her over for a couple of drinks and a private view of her work in progress. After all, it was only those few details that still needed doing. A fair idea of the end piece could be gleaned from what was already up there on the canvas.  
  
Pouring herself a glass of light wine, Sarah picked up the cordless phone and dialed in her friend and agent's number by heart. Waiting on her end of the line as the phone went through its routine ringings, Sarah only hoped that tonight was one of those nights that Caroline was actually home without plans on such short notice. 


	2. Dreams

"Oh Sarah, this is classic. Where did you get these ideas from?"  
  
Caroline rounded the canvas, staring at it like Sarah had never seen Caroline staring at any of her artwork before now.  
  
"I guess this means you like it then," Sarah asked, eyebrows raised. "Makes me wonder what you really thought of all my previous works."  
  
"Oh, Sarah, it's not like that, really!" Caroline looked at her, hastening to explain.  
  
Sarah waved her hand between them complacently.  
  
"It's alright. I'm only teasing. And anyway, even I can see how much of an improvement this is on my usual standard of work. You don't have to find some terribly diplomatic way of putting it."  
  
"Oh thank god!" Caroline said, mock gratefully. There was a twinkle in her eyes as she sat down on the paint splattered couch, the only real piece of furniture in Sarah's work room. With richly painted nails, she patted the couch seat beside her and Sarah joined her on the couch where the both sat to stare up at her painting. "But seriously, where did you get the idea from?"  
  
"That's the funny thing. I just woke up this morning, and there it was. Absolutely refused to go away. Even now I can see it dancing in front of me in my head. It looks exactly the same. almost. But there is just something there that shouldn't be, or. something that should be there, but isn't."  
  
Sarah narrowed her eyes and regarded her work for a moment in silence. Swirling the wine around in her glass, Caroline sat by quietly, waiting for her friend to come to the end of her train of thought. However, at the end of it, Sarah only snapped her fingers and dropped her eyes in irritation mixed with upset.  
  
"Nope, it's gone. But, I mean, it's still good as it is."  
  
"Definitely!" Caroline was quick to reassure. "Without a doubt the best work that you've ever submitted to me. A couple more like this, and I'm telling you that you'll really have a great shot at getting into the top five in the artistry comp this season."  
  
Something about that sentence took the sure smile off Sarah's lips.  
  
"Well that's not pressure or anything!" she said, attempting to laugh it up.  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"I told you already how I got the idea. I was just thinking then, what if the idea stops at that? What if nothing like that ever comes out of me again?"  
  
Caroline wrapped a comforting arm around Sarah's shoulders.  
  
"If that happens, and I'm sure it won't, we'll just have to make sure that we plug you as one bloody marvelous one hit wonder then, won't we?"  
  
With a laugh, she downed the rest of what was in her glass, then with a grin, held it up in a silent and joking plea for it to be refilled. Sarah made a show of sighing mockingly, before heaving herself back up off the couch and collecting her own glass from beside the canvas, before exiting the room in favor of the kitchen, Caroline not very far behind.  
  
Although no light was left on in the room, her work room appeared to be bathed in it long after the two women had left. A man, tightly clothed and with long whisps of blonde white hair hanging over his forehead and upturned collar stepped out from behind one of the spidery trees, leaning against it and stared, seemingly absently, into the room the canvas was propped up in.  
  
*  
  
"No father, you don't understand. It's not a waste of time at all. Is that what you're wife has been telling you again? Look, I could be in the running to get a placing in this year's competitions. Father, would it really be so hard for you, just this once, to actually be happy for what I work for?"  
  
Sarah sighed in aggravation as she listened to her father's reply coming at her from the other side of the phone connection. It was more of the same. Toby had gone to a 'proper' school. Toby had gotten a 'proper' job. Toby this, Toby that. The perfect Toby who could by all accounts do no wrong! Why couldn't Sarah be more like Toby? Why? Because Sarah was sick of hearing about bloody Toby, that was why!  
  
To be fair, Sarah thought as a fond image of her younger brother filled her mind, none of his parent's praise had gone to his head. Or no more than was natural at least. On the occasions when he came over to her flat for a visit, they regularly had great amounts of fun. Toby was actually the only one of her family who was genuinely interested in what current work she was in the middle of and what kinds of stories were behind them. More than once, when Sarah hadn't been able to produce a story to his satisfaction, Toby had looked into her work and come up with some of his own, proving that his was not the completely maths and science orientated mind that his parents liked to think it was.  
  
"Okay father, look, I just don't want to get into this argument with you again. Haven't we had this one enough? I'm not going to change to your expectations, and you're not going to. to change. to mine. Let's just leave it at that, okay? No. goodbye, okay? Goodbye!"  
  
Not meaning to, but doing it anyway, Sarah slammed the phone down into its cradle and turned around to see if her dinner was ready cooked in the oven. The timer went off. However, instead of the usual beeping that Sarah was accustomed to, indeed, the beeping sound that most normal ovens made when their timer was up, the opening bars of a familiar song flooded into her kitchen.  
  
*As the fear sweeps through, makes not sense for you,* *Everything that's done, wasn't too much fun before,* *But I'll be there for.*  
  
Sarah snapped off the oven timer with a harsh flick of her wrist. What was that all about anyway? Music coming from an oven? That particular music? It was crazy. She stepped away from the oven in sudden haste. Her dinner probably wasn't done already anyway.  
  
As she rushed out of the kitchen - she woke up.  
  
* 


	3. Toby's missing

From early in that morning for nearly all of the next day, Sarah resolutely worked herself like a dog. Even more than she had the day before and with none of the excitement of something good and new. She knew exactly what parts of that painting needed doing today, and all of a sudden, she wanted it done and finished yesterday. She couldn't have pinpointed exactly what it was about the painting that suddenly freaked her out, but after her dream the night before, she wanted nothing to do with anything that made her feel uncomfortable. She wasn't going back to that wreck of a girl she'd been 8 years before.  
  
It had taken months after her return to the real world outside of the Labyrinth to get her head back together again. Months when every time she had seen her little brother in his crib or walking around the lounge room or being fed one of his meals, she had collapsed into fits of tears. When she had woken in the middle of the night only to run down the corridor and into his room and gather him up in her arms and hold him tight, sobbing in her very real relief that he was still there and she was still there and. Too many nights when she had stayed there like that until her father had come into Toby's room, woken up by the baby's waking howls at being jerked awake at such a late hour. After one too many nights found there like that, her father had followed her into her bedroom which she had changed quite drastically after her return and sat at the end of her bed at something like 4 o'clock in the morning and tried to talk through with her why it was that she was behaving in the way that she was.  
  
When Sarah had finally cracked and first opened her mouth to speak out about the Labyrinth and the Goblin King and her wish to have Toby sent away and the fear and terror that had propelled her into rushing in there right after him, everything had come out in a jumbled up mess. She had barely looked up at her father all the way through it, and even if she had, she didn't realize that he was staring at her in an expression somewhere between frank disbelief and mute horror. In the end, when her father had stopped her with the finality of a hand pressed over hers and a terse, 'That's enough, Sarah,' she had been unable to claim the edge of calm that she'd grasped around her as a cloak to hide her truer emotions ever since she had returned.  
  
And worse; she came back to herself to find that of everything that she had revealed to her father that night, he had believed none of it.  
  
Then had been the start of her counseling sessions. It hadn't taken many weekends of her Doctor's raised eyebrows and constant 'hmm's to bring Sarah to the awareness that none of what she said of the Labyrinth was ever going to believe. She was totally and utterly alone in this.  
  
Over a year later, with nothing hanging over to act as reminder of her time spent within the Labyrinth, Sarah finally came to realize that there was no reason to hold onto something that nobody would ever believe when it obviously wasn't going to come back as a part of her life. Only then had she been able to let it go. At least, let it go enough to allow herself to live a semi normal life.  
  
There was no way on this earth or any other that she was going to allow herself to regress back to those times again.  
  
With flourish and finality, Sarah signed her name in the bottom corner of her artwork and stepped back to admire it. Even though she still couldn't fault it as a more than valid work of art, somehow, she just couldn't manage to gather the amount of excitement that it had brought out in her the day before.  
  
A knock sounded at her door. Sarah's eyes narrowed in wonder. As far as she remembered, she wasn't expecting anybody. Closing the door to her work room with an additional touch of finality, she walked down the short hallway towards the front door to answer whoever stood there.  
  
"Surprise sis!"  
  
Before she knew it, she had her younger brother's arms strangling around her neck. Getting over the surprise, Sarah relaxed enough to put her arms around Toby's more muscular body in a warm hug. As they pulled apart, she couldn't help the smile she felt tugging at the edges of her mouth. It was the best that she had felt all day.  
  
"Toby, what are you doing here?" she asked, holding him at the upper arms and looking to see how he'd changed since she'd last seen him.  
  
"Well, I was just in the neighborhood," he said, walking around her and into her flat, making himself completely at home. "I knew that I couldn't pass this place without dropping in on you for at least one night!"  
  
Again Sarah smiled and wondered quickly how she could ever have wished him into the Goblin World. With a slight twitch of her neck, she forcibly banished the thought, but the damage was already done. The smile was gone from her face, and she couldn't get it back.  
  
His back to her already, Toby didn't realize the difference in her features. Biding time to compose herself, Sarah turned back to close her front door, and then followed on after him.  
  
"So, what are you working on at the moment?" Toby asked, looking at the pictures hooked on her walls that she changed every time he was over. "Anything interesting?"  
  
The question was asked only out of politeness, Sarah knew. Anything that she was working on, Toby would find interesting. He was just going for the quickest way to get her to show it to him. Yet curiously, this time she didn't feel the familiar pull to sharing her work with him.  
  
"Actually no, nothing that's actually here at the moment, but how about some tea?" Sarah asked, moving to redirect him towards her kitchen. "While we're there, you can tell me what you've been up to lately."  
  
She opened her fridge to pull out a cool drink for both of them as Toby settled down on the kitchen stool.  
  
"Oh, you know. Same old," he answered her evasively. Sarah looked at him over here shoulder strangely. Sometimes she wondered if her little brother got any enjoyment out of being the brainy one of the family; the golden child that his parents lived their academic dreams though.  
  
"Yeah?" Sarah asked, not wanting to pry. She started looking in the freezer for something to cook up for both of them. Finding nothing for a moment, she dug a little deeper, hoping to find something that she could eat with Toby without blushing at her own inadequacies as a hostess. "Hey, what do you think of.?"  
  
The rest of her question drifted off as Sarah turned to find that the bench where Toby had been sitting just a moment ago was now painfully absent.  
  
* 


	4. Jareth's arrival

"Toby? Toby!"  
  
Although admittedly, there weren't too many rooms in Sarah's flat, right at that moment, she felt as though there must be more than had been in her father's house when she'd been a child. Even the thought of that house was enough to bring back thoughts of the Goblin King, strong enough that Sarah swayed on her feet, reaching out for the corner of a wall and closing her eyes to regain her balance.  
  
When she was sure she had it again, she kept on after her little brother.  
  
"Oh god, if he's been taken again." she murmured to herself, only half aware that she was even speaking aloud.  
  
Then she noticed that the door to her work room was open a crack. Sure that she had closed it when she had left it, she hastened her step to reach it and opened it the full way.  
  
Standing right in front of her, or rather, right in front of her newly finished painting, was Toby, his head tilted sideways as though he were trying to take in every perspective of the painting all at once. Sensing that he was no longer the only person in the room, Toby turned around with a highly guilty smile on his face.  
  
"Hey I, er, thought that you didn't have anything new in the works at the moment," he spoke up.  
  
Sarah was hard pressed to hide exactly how high her relief was at that moment, knowing that she could never possibly explain to him why she almost felt like fainting at the sight of him proving that he was indeed okay.  
  
"You know, this place that you've drawn seems almost. familiar." Toby muttered, taking her silence for permission to be there after all. Either that, or he was trying to fill in the silence to avoid having her tell him off for being in here.  
  
Then his eyes narrowed, and from the edges of her consciousness, Sarah became aware that he was regarding the painting and his own words a little more seriously.  
  
"Actually. really, really familiar." he said softly, as though no longer to her.  
  
Feeling a sudden new strength infusing her legs, Sarah jumped up from the corner of the room and rushed over to him.  
  
"I'm sorry, Toby, I don't want anyone to see this one. It's. private. Please. Could you just, leave it?"  
  
Toby looked at his older sister strangely a moment, although he didn't hesitate to go along with her wishes.  
  
"Sure, sis. Say, is anything wrong?"  
  
"No, nothing. Why don't you go into the kitchen? I put something on the bench that I thought we could have for dinner together." Sarah ran a harried hand through her hair as Toby left her alone in the room.  
  
She closed her eyes and breathed out before opening them again and staring numbly at the painting. No comfort could be found there anymore. None at all.  
  
*  
  
"That's what I said. This painting. if you could see it! It's nothing like her other works, but not only that; it's everything like here!"  
  
Jareth only lifted his chin almost imperceptively, seeming to gaze off to a distance that only he could see. A silence settled between he and his informant for a moment, before in one sudden, lithe movement, he spun around, his cape flowing out behind him, and began striding off.  
  
Left in his wake were the words, "It is time then."  
  
*  
  
"No Caroline, you don't understand. I want to give it away to you. Not sell it. It's yours. As in, when do you think you can pick it up from my place?"  
  
"Sarah?" Toby stood behind her, hair rumpled from sleep as he wiped his eyes and stared up at her.  
  
Sarah tried to offer him what she hoped was a comforting smile, before going back to her conversation on the phone.  
  
"I do understand. Look, if you want to give me that money, you can give it to me for the next piece you buy off me. Think of this one as a birthday present. okay then, an early birthday present. Very early. Christmas then!" Sarah sighed heavily.  
  
Toby paused in the middle of pouring himself milk for his cereal. He mimed for her to hang up on whoever it was on the phone, then put both thumbs up as encouragement.  
  
"Look, I would have thought you'd be more than happy to add this to your collection, and at no charge! Of course there's nothing wrong with it. Would I give you something that's faulty?"  
  
At those words, Sarah paused. There wasn't any way that she could ensure that there was nothing wrong with it though, just not in the way that Caroline meant. What if it ended up as a portal and Caroline got sucked into the hell world of the Labyrinth? Suddenly her haste to get rid of the painting left her. She felt deflated and beaten.  
  
"Fine. I'll bring it into the comp as arranged. No, no, that's okay. My fault anyway. It'll teach me not to try to change plans after they're made. Okay then, meet you there just like we planned. Okay then. Okay. Bye."  
  
Sarah hung up.  
  
"Bad deal?" Toby asked, mouth full of Corn Flakes.  
  
"Something like that," Sarah said, rolling her eyes and fixing herself a sharp caffeine jolt.  
  
Toby swallowed his current mouthful and looked at his sister considering.  
  
"You know, you've been acting really weird the whole time that I've been here," he said. "What's wrong?"  
  
"Nothing," she said, not looking at him. Then, knowing that there was no way he'd believe her if she told him like that, she told him again as she turned to face him, "Nothing."  
  
At least, that's what would have come out, if it hadn't been Toby at age 3 kicking his legs over the edge of the bench that faced her.  
  
Before she could open her mouth to scream, a dark bedroom surrounded her. Tempted to scream anyway, her eyes widened and fear suddenly paralyzed her when she looked up towards the end of her bed and saw a blonde white haired man standing there staring at her with a strange expression in his eyes.  
  
"Shh," he said, lifting one gloved finger up to his full lips, before the world that she had known and made for herself in 8 years fell down.  
  
* 


	5. As The World Falls Down

Her eyes widened and fear suddenly paralyzed her when she looked up towards the end of her bed and saw a blonde white haired man standing there staring at her with a strangely soft expression in his eyes.  
  
"Shh," he said, lifting one gloved finger up to his full lips, before the world that she had known and made for herself in 8 years fell down.  
  
*  
  
Sarah glanced around the place where she ended up without moving more muscles than she could help. Somehow, she felt that the less she moved, the safer she'd be, although at the same time, she had no idea where she had gotten such an idea from.  
  
At length, it occurred to her that wherever Jareth had taken her this time, it had not been the Labyrinth. Not only that, but with the kinds of dreams she'd been having of late, it was quite a possibility that this was just another one of them that she'd just woken up from; in which case, if she just reached around to her left, there should be a light switch there on the wall. somewhere.  
  
"Sarah, what do you think you are doing?"  
  
That deep voice crawled into her in a way that she had thought she'd forgotten in the 8 years since their last 'meeting'. It was also the first time he had actually spoken to her, and the effect of his words on her took her a moment to get over before she was sure that she would be able to speak properly.  
  
"Reaching for my light switch," she said resolutely, wishing that it didn't sound as stupid as she knew it sounded.  
  
There was no reply on his end, but Sarah was sure that just because she couldn't see around her, that that was stopping the Goblin King from taking his fill of her. After moments longer of silence, she could take it no longer.  
  
"Stop it!" she hissed into the darkness.  
  
"Stop. what, exactly?"  
  
Sarah took a deep breath.  
  
"I know you are staring at me. I can feel it, even if I can't see you there doing it," she said to him from behind gritted teeth.  
  
"Well, if it bothers you so much."  
  
From the fact that this meaningless conversation was going exactly nowhere, Sarah knew that it would continue to do so unless she chose to give it some sort of direction; and soon. She didn't know how much longer she'd be able to last like this, and she didn't particularly want to test it out. None of this was bad. At least she knew that Toby was safe this time.  
  
"You didn't take me to the Labyrinth this time," Sarah commented, hoping that that might give their conversation the desired direction that she was after.  
  
"I hardly thought that fair," was the reply. "After all, there are not very many places that could provide such a biased atmosphere for our meeting."  
  
"Why." Sarah wet her throat. "Why are we meeting like this. now?"  
  
"Why? Sarah, I'm crushed that you do not remember. Your subconscious very obviously did." When that got no reply from Sarah, Jareth continued. "The painting, Sarah? The dreams? Obviously you knew it had to mean something was coming. Unless you just chose to. forget about me?"  
  
"All but," Sarah murmured before she could hold it back.  
  
"Very well then."  
  
Sarah could feel the self control in the air that was coming from Jareth at that moment and a large part of her wished that she had been able to hold back that remark. Not very wise in the pretty much helpless to his mercy position that she found herself in.  
  
"Perhaps I should give you some time to remember."  
  
Sarah opened her mouth to gasp out a 'no!' A part of her already knew where she was sure to be bound, especially with the tone of voice he had used in saying. Her whole body tensed at the very thought of finding herself in the oubliette.  
  
Hence, she was quite surprised when against the blinding white light that suddenly flooded her senses, she was able to make out the stair room that had been made out of the poster that she used to have pinned up on her wall before. before she had torn it away along with everything else in her room that reminded her of anything to do with Jareth.  
  
"Hey! I knew that that painting of yours looked familiar. Just take a look out at this, sis!"  
  
Sarah twirled around in sudden fear that made the fear of the oubliette only a moment ago seem like a laughable emotion. There, sitting a couple of disjointed staircases away from here and staring in amazement out of one of the windows, was Toby.  
  
Even as she stood watching him in absolute horror, he turned around to smile at her largely.  
  
"Wow, Sarah. This place is great! Where are we?"  
  
Sarah felt her whole self regressing as though the past 8 years had never happened to her. It could have been alright, it would have been alright if it hadn't been for Toby being here with her. What the hell did Jareth think he was playing at this time, she inwardly raged. At the same time, she felt herself slipping down against one of the walls that she was leaning her weight against.  
  
Again, she heard Toby's voice calling out to her, although this time it wasn't nearly so clear as before.  
  
"Sarah? Sarah, are you alright over there? Sarah."  
  
* 


	6. Warnings and Threats

"I don't think she's making the transition very well this time, master." One of the simpering goblins around Jareth's feet made a point of saying as the Goblin King sat staring into the crystal ball that held her reflection in it. She had sat in the Room of Stairs for almost as long as she'd been here, always unmoving, and so it had been for Jareth while watching her. He leaned forward on his gloved fist and started contemplatingly at her. Around him, his goblin subjects grew more and more anxious.  
  
"You know, I think that maybe if."  
  
"Don't you think that if I wanted you to think." Jareth growled in dual annoyance over dragging his attention away from Sarah and at the fact that it had been a lowly goblin that had caused him to do so. ". I don't want you to think. Just, be gone from here. Out of my sight!"  
  
"Come now, is that any way to be speaking to loyal subjects of yours?" A new voice entered Jareth's chamber, and this time it was with a slightly different expression that Jareth broke his surveillance, although it was still with perceptible annoyance.  
  
"Karlyn, what are you doing here?" he asked moodily.  
  
"And a fine state I seem to have found you in too!" she said, undauntedly walking towards him. "Here I was thinking that the return of your Sarah would have done something to improve your mood, too."  
  
"She sits there, unmoving. Brooding. And look, I even brought her brother back with her to cheer her along. See how ungrateful she is towards my consideration?"  
  
"Ah Jareth, still the same as always. If you lived in the mortal realm, there would be a word for you." Karlyn paused to wait for a reaction. All she got was a mockingly raised eyebrow. "Spoilt child," she ended with some amount of satisfaction.  
  
Jareth stood up forcefully.  
  
"That's it! I will not take this insolence from all those around me. Her time is up for brooding. And you," he pointed at Karlyn for added emphasis, "Would do well to get out of my sight for a time. Just because you are no goblin, do not think that my rule does not apply to you while you are here."  
  
"Wouldn't dream of it," Karlyn said, barely hiding a smirk from her features.  
  
With a muted growl, Jareth swept from the room. Assuming much, Karlyn moved across the room and landed across Jareth's throne, her legs hanging over the edge as she exhaled deeply and rolled her eyes significantly.  
  
*  
  
"Sarah, you've got to get up. You've got to explain to me what is going on here. Why is all of this so familiar to me?"  
  
"That is because you almost came to belong here. 8 years ago, or did Sarah neglect to ever tell you that?" a silky voice interrupted on the sibling bonding.  
  
Toby stood up and stepped between his sister and this unknown but obviously powerful ruler of these parts.  
  
"And who are you?" he said, trying to appear taller than he was.  
  
"Oh, well haven't you changed since the last time that I saw you?" Jareth said with a disdainfully raised eyebrow. He tilted his head to look squarely over at Sarah. "As I recall, the last time I saw him he was a squalling little baby. I trust that the two of you get along better these days?"  
  
"Much," Sarah replied, refusing to look away from his piercing eyes.  
  
"Sarah, who is this man?" Toby asked, looking from her to him in obvious confusion over what they were both talking about.  
  
"I, dear boy, am the Goblin King. Ruler of these parts, granter of wishes, servant to some desires." As he spoke, Jareth moved around Toby, who found himself quite unable to move into place in time. Jareth lingered beside Sarah, grazing her cheek with a soft caress as his mouth made out the word 'desires'.  
  
Sarah shivered, knowing exactly what he was meaning. Jareth looked up sharply and now it was Toby who could not look away.  
  
"My my, I do see there is quite a lot that Sarah neglected to mention to you over the years. Should we get into some of that now, do you think?"  
  
"No," Sarah croaked out, causing Jareth's gaze to swing around towards her again. She cleared her throat hurriedly. "There is no need for that. Surely this is just between us, this time."  
  
If the Goblin King noticed her significant reference to this time as being different to the last time, he made no visible acknowledgement of the fact. Instead, he moved much closer to her than she would have liked, or not quite close enough if she was being bitterly honest with herself, and tilted his head to the side as though memorizing her every feature behind those ever changing eyes.  
  
"Yes, between us. That means no going to others for help, no pleas that 'it's not fair'."  
  
Sarah cringed as he made a marvelous parody of the way she had spoken to him years before; that everything that had happened had been unfair.  
  
"No," she agreed. "None of that."  
  
Jareth's eyes glinted, as though he had won something that only he was currently aware of. He stepped even still closer to her.  
  
"You know, I do not tolerate lies among those I consider mine, Sarah," he said in that soft but dangerous voice she remembered all too well.  
  
"I'm not." Sarah hastened to argue, but a gloved finger was put over her lips to stop her flow of words.  
  
"From now on, Sarah, the rules are about to change. I didn't decide that. You did. Your subconscious mind brought me back to you, even if you are not yet ready to admit to it. Again, I find myself at the mercy of your wishes. But know I dislike being played with, Sarah. No more games, for I promise you that you wouldn't like the games that I could play."  
  
"Are you threatening my sister?" Toby flared up.  
  
"Threatening?" The twist of Jareth's lips that allowed Sarah a glimpse of his teeth did not fool her for an instant. There was steel behind that smile. He meant every word that he had just said. "More like warning. A warning that neither of you would be wise to ignore. However, I do look forward to finding out how much like your sister you have become. Toby."  
  
Then, convincing Sarah that she had blinked and missed it, Jareth was again gone from their sight.  
  
* 


	7. Revelations

Wow, everyone's been just great with the reviews of this story. I actually considered leaving it as it was for a while after the fourth chapter, and then I got feedback saying that they hoped I would continue with the next parts soon. Unfortunately, not all of you leave your emails addresses, so I can't write back to thank you. I guess that's why I'm doing it here. But anyway, I'll get back to the story now as I know that's what you want to read and what you are here for. Just thought I'd let my appreciation for all of you be known. Thanks guys, you help a lot!  
  
~*~**~*~**~**~*~*~*~**~**~**~*~**~*~  
  
A glorious white owl glided over the buildings in the centre of the Labyrinth. Beautiful markings across its face singled it out from others of its kind; made it special. This was no ordinary owl.  
  
Curbing its wings slightly, it perched down on the outer window sill, stationed to watch in. A girl and her little brother stood alone there, heedless towards the fact that they were at that moment being watched.  
  
"It's just that he doesn't seem so bad," the younger boy spoke. "I'm not saying that I'm on his side or anything."  
  
"You don't know what he's done; what he's capable of doing!" the girl said, striding restlessly back and forth. "There's history there that you couldn't possibly understand."  
  
"Well maybe I would have a chance of understanding if you tried telling me something about it," the boy said, following her but not too closely as to crowd her. "I'm not some stupid little kid, you know. I'm able to sometimes put a few things together eventually."  
  
The girl sighed. As the owl watched on with interest, it seemed as though most of the fight just drained out of her.  
  
"You're right. Somehow you've been dragged into this, again. You deserve to know why."  
  
Although her words were stating one thing, everything about her manner was stating quite the opposite. Whether the boy chose to ignore the signs or was just oblivious to them, he made no open reaction to her demeanour as he came and crouched down next to her.  
  
"You want to know about the Labyrinth? Why everything here seems so familiar to you?" The girl made a soft scoffing sound, but even so, went on with the tale. "I mean it should be. You probably spent more time around here than I did!"  
  
"Spent more time. How could I have spent time here?" the boy asked incredulously. "I've never set a foot around here in my life!"  
  
"That's not true, Toby," the girl said, giving the younger boy with her a name. Her bowed her head, and the next words that came out of her mouth were vaguely muffled, but not so much that the owl could not make out what was being said.  
  
"It was a long time ago, true. You were still very little. I don't even think that you had fully learnt how to walk yet." The girl squeezed her eyes shut, and now even the boy Toby couldn't deny the very real pain that it was costing her to tell him this. In an unthinking act of comfort, he shuffled closer to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.  
  
As platonic and brotherly as the motion was, the owl on the window sill, unacknowledged by either of the two in the Stair Room, bristled slightly, before consciously soothing ruffled feathers.  
  
"It was a dark night. Storming. Your mum and dad had gone out for the night. They were always going out together." A trace of the bitterness left over from her childhood slipped into her voice here. "I was left at home to look after you. I remember that you were crying. Nothing I could do would quiet you. I was young too. It wasn't my responsibility to have full care over a baby."  
  
The girl paused, taking a breath for the crux of the story now that she had given it setting.  
  
"It had been a book I'd been reading at the time; the Labyrinth. In it was a character, the Goblin King." Toby's eyes widened as he recognised the title from the blonde white haired man who had introduced himself before. "It was said in the story that if one just wished for a child to be taken away by the Goblin King, the Goblin King would sweep him away to his castle within the walls of the Goblin City and turn him into a Goblin."  
  
Toby's eyes widened. The girl still refused to look straight at him. The owl watched on silently.  
  
"I didn't know; I didn't know that it was real. I didn't know what to do and with you crying, and my anger and my father, and you, and I guess I just said the words without thinking." As the girl lifted her head and looked forwards, it was as though her gaze was sightless to what was really there; as though she was seeing in front of her the scenes from the past.  
  
" 'Goblin King, Goblin King, take this child far away from me'." She dropped her head and closed her eyes as the quoted words left her mouth. "And then the next thing I knew, he was at the door, and you were gone from your room. Gone. to here." Again, another pause. Then, "He said that the only way I could get you back was to go through the Labyrinth and get you before the 13 hours was up. He lied. He cheated; setting forward the course of time several hours. but in the end, I still managed to get there."  
  
By this time, Toby was sitting in a stupor, totally unaware that his legs had gone dead from the lack of blood circulation running there in the crouched position that he had maintained for the whole of this story. Wisely though, he remained silent for the time, instinctively realising that her story was not yet up.  
  
"When I'd finally found you, he face me yet again. Offered me. everything. But the price. was too high." For the first time since starting her story, the girl looked up into Toby's eyes and found the wetness in hers was echoed in his own. "But I already had my baby brother back. and that was enough."  
  
With a sigh that signalled the end of the story, the girl seemed to collapse into herself, as though the effort of keeping such a thing inside of her for so long, only to finally let it out freely had cost her greatly. But as Toby sat there, numbly thinking on everything he had just heard, he realised that his sister was looking at him very strangely. It took a moment to realise, but he recognised the look of someone scared that her every word was about to be disbelieved and made ridicule of.  
  
"Oh sis!" he cried, turning to hug her tightly. "Sarah. I can't believe you kept this from me, all this time. But now." He released her slowly and took another look around them. "We're very obviously back here again. So what do you suppose he wants this time?"  
  
From the window sill, the owl squawked loudly, making itself known to both Toby and Sarah for the first time. Immediately, Sarah recognised it for what, or rather, who it was. Showing for the first time how indeed quick he was on the uptake, Toby noted the look that suddenly came over her face, and correctly interpreted the reason for it in an instant.  
  
"Oh god. He's come to settle the score of the last time. He wants you back, this time. his way."  
  
* 


	8. Separations

Due to an error of maths on my part, I am going to revoke the '8' in every time it is referred to as '8 Years Passed' to '18 Years Passed'. Everyone who has commented on Toby's apparent age is absolutely right, I am wrong, and I apologise. Thanks for bearing with me here. Sarah is aged 34 and Toby is 21. That should solve everything right up. I will keep to 18 years from now on.  
  
~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~~*~*~~*~  
  
Although time had passed since Toby's declaration of Jareth's intentions towards her, Sarah was still attempting to find a sense of equilibrium. Initially, she had tried to deny it, convince herself as well as her brother that what he had said was plainly wrong. However, Toby's continually solemn face and the way that he slowly shook his head had eventually thrown that theory to a low level of hell that it was going to be impossible to get back.  
  
Would it be so bad, she found herself asking herself. In essence, she was being told that some guy, and not a bad looking guy at that, was quite interested in her. Insanely so, really. And there was the problem. He was insane. He had to be!  
  
Sarah's eyes refocused to realizing that Toby was staring at her in worry. Resolutely, she stood up, trying to hide the shaking in her legs and snuck a glace over towards the window. No owl. They were on their own without Jareth's interference for the time being at least. Foolish not to take advantage of it.  
  
"Come on," she said, moving past and grabbing Toby's hand in hers. "We're going to find our own way out of here."  
  
"Sarah, are you okay?" Toby asked, worried at the unusually swift strides that Sarah was taking.  
  
"I will be," she muttered grimly. "As soon as we get out of this place."  
  
"But. . ." Toby paused in his speech, if not his movement, trying to think of a good way that Sarah was going to be able to take in this mood, to say what was utmost on his mind. "Isn't Jareth likely to try to stop you? Or if not directly stop you, try to put you through some of the trials that you had to get through last time before he let you get back?"  
  
In front of them, Sarah had sited a door that was the right way around to the floor that she and Toby were walking on. She wasn't really listening to what her little brother was saying right then, thinking instead that if she wished it enough, this would be the door that would lead them bam-smack straight into the safety of her apartment again. Cause that was the way things worked in this place, wasn't it?  
  
It had to be!  
  
"Sarah-"  
  
Her brother's voice was cut off at the same time as she opened the door. Only then did Sarah begin to realize what this meant, but not before she looked around at where she found herself.  
  
*  
  
Toby looked down to his now empty hand that was no longer being tugged along after his older sister. Not that he couldn't keep up with her or anything, but. . . he had tried to keep her from rushing off as without thought as she had ended up rushing off. The instant that she had opened that door and stepped her first foot through its threshold, Toby had begun to lose sight of her in the haziness that she had disappeared into.  
  
At the end of it, there door had appeared as it had been before she had touched it, only now he had to look up to see it as it was attached to the 'floor' above his head. It hadn't even closed as any normal door should do. Instead, it had just appeared there again, closed and above his head. Now just how was he supposed to follow in after her now?  
  
Thoroughly agitated, and having no idea of what to do now, Toby gritted his teeth and gazed around him for another upright door. Finally, his eyes rested again on the upside down door, wondering what on earth Sarah expected him to do now that she had separated them in this place?  
  
*  
  
"Well, you've separated them now. Which one of them are you going to go to first?" Karlyn questioned, looking over his shoulder and into the crystal ball that he held nimbly between gloved fingers.  
  
"I did not separate them," Jareth replied, vanishing the ball with just a twist of his fingers. He stood up haughtily. "I did not make her walk through that door. It was a decision that she made all on her own."  
  
"Ah yes, but the fact remains, they are both very much alone now. And in great need of comfort, I dare say," Karlyn said sneakily, not moving from her position on the edge of the chair, even though Jareth had left.  
  
He smirked, looking off into the distance.  
  
"I dare say that she would not welcome any comfort I had to give her," he murmured.  
  
"I guess then that you shall have to make her," said Karlyn. "That is, if you are as serious about all of this as you have been saying ever since she defeated your Labyrinth."  
  
Jareth spun around, his eyes flashing.  
  
"She did not defeat the Labyrinth," he told her through tightly gritted teeth. "Would it have made a very good impression on her had I let it take her and swallow her whole, I wonder?"  
  
"Seems to me that you didn't make a very good impression on her either way," Karlyn quipped.  
  
"Oh, I made an impression alright. I only have to make her realize it. I have all the time in the world. And," he faced her squarely, "I shall manage it without any force whatsoever."  
  
"Oh, dear brother, what do you have up your sleeve, I wonder," Karlyn smirked, but he'd already vanished like his crystal ball.  
  
* 


	9. Fondest Desires

They were her pictures. All of them. Hanging up all the way around the room. A room with red patterned carpet underfoot, cream painted walls. At the front of all of it, Sarah read the poster declaring her work to be on exhibition to the public starting from 4 o'clock pm on Sunday the 4th of August. Toby wasn't here to share it with her, but apart from that, it was. . .  
  
"Everything you've ever wanted?"  
  
At the first sound of the silky smooth voice, Sarah was turning around, the whole world of wonder that had been spun around her, suddenly and cruelly taken away from her as a rug swept from underneath a person to make them fall to the floor in disillusionment.  
  
"It's not real," she said, trying her hardest not to sound as disappointed as she felt.  
  
"It could be," Jareth said, not moving any closer to her. "Did I not promise that I would give you all you desired?"  
  
"The price was too high," Sarah replied, looking up and into his eyes to make sure he understood that she meant it as she repeated the same five words she had earlier said to her brother. "Now where is my brother?"  
  
"Why, you closed the door on him when you opened the one into this fantasy world of your own making. Unfortunately, it seems, that young Toby has no part to play here in this." Jareth tilted his head to the side slightly and looked in a sort of lazy wonder. "Now why do you suppose that is?"  
  
"That's not true," Sarah vehemently denied. "Toby has a part in every aspect of my life!"  
  
"Even the parts that he himself played in?" Jareth asked, finally taking steps forward towards her. "Even the parts that you yourself wished him into?"  
  
"I couldn't have told him. Without you; without this place, he would never have understood it," Sarah argued.  
  
"So by bringing the two of you back here, it could be seen that I have helped the truthfulness grow between you," Jareth said, now directly in front of her.  
  
Sarah's eyes held only to his, her every body language insisting that she was ignoring the finger of his running softly against her jaw line.  
  
"By bringing you both here, I have made it believable again." His voice was very soft, which was why with his next sentence, much less softly spoken, Sarah started out of the stupor he had spun around for her.  
  
"And then you had to go and undo it all by blocking him out of your life again."  
  
"I did not!" Sarah insisted.  
  
"Oh no?" Jareth gestured all around the room, and Sarah couldn't help her eyes from following after his hands. "Really? I would say that this room directly contradicts you."  
  
"This room is another trick, a spell cast from your own mind. It has nothing to do with me or Toby."  
  
"Wrong!" The single word rebounded around the room with the intensity that Jareth forced into it. He pointed a single finger towards her. "Your words say one thing, but your dreams, as always before, speak quite another thing entirely."  
  
Finally, Sarah dropped her eyes from Jareth's. She would not let him see her cry at the possibility that what he said was true. It wasn't. It could be!  
  
Suddenly, Jareth was again right in front of her. His gloved finger was gently lifting her chin up so that she could look at him again.  
  
"Prove it," he uttered softly. "If what you say is really true, then prove it. Prove it to me. Prove it to him."  
  
"How," Sarah whispered fiercely.  
  
"Now I can hardly give that away then, can I?" Jareth asked, holding his hands out to either side of him. "Especially as it would be such a violation of your mind to do so. No Sarah, this is for you to find. How important has your brother truly become in your life? No tricks this time. I only want to see your heart."  
  
Sarah gasped at the blatant desire in the words of his wish, but before she could respond, he was conveniently gone.  
  
*  
  
"Maybe if I wait here long enough," Toby muttered to himself. "Or wish. That's the way things are usually done in Fairy places."  
  
"This is not a 'fairy place'," a voice told from behind him.  
  
Even knowing that the voice was not Sarah's Toby turned around eagerly, hoping that perhaps Sarah was at least behind the person who had spoken to him. She was not, however, and he couldn't help the disappointment that infused his face.  
  
"In fact, I take harsh offence to the very term being spoken to describe my castle."  
  
"Jareth," Toby said, drawing himself up to look his sister's tormentor in the eye. "Where is Sarah?"  
  
"Well now, haven't we grown up and into the protective older brother sort?" Jareth asked silkily. "Wouldn't Sarah be proud?"  
  
"What did you do to her?" Toby asked, refusing to be distracted.  
  
"I gave her her fondest wish," Jareth replied, leaning against one of the walls and staring at the younger boy.  
  
"Which was?" Toby asked suspiciously.  
  
"For her to work through," Jareth said. He stood up and strode towards Toby. "But now I ask you, what is your fondest wish while you are here?"  
  
"Is this supposed to be some kind of trick?" Toby asked, not moving from his stance.  
  
"Strong. Suspicious. I do believe that I could grow to like that about you," Jareth muttered. "But don't push me too far, boy. I offer you a chance rarely, if ever, given to any mere mortal."  
  
"So why me then?" Toby asked, raising an eyebrow.  
  
Unexpectedly, Jareth's face suddenly broadened into a grin.  
  
"How like your sister you are after all!" he said, in apparent delight, but for the undercurrent running through it. All at once, the grin was gone. "The games she played will not work with you. Take that was your one and only warning. I do not like to repeat myself."  
  
"You can't let anything happen to me," Toby said defiantly, even has his mind was warning him against the words. "Sarah would hate you forever!"  
  
"As opposed to how she already feels?" Jareth asked, causing Toby to shut up for a time, and wonder at all the meanings of that simple sentence. 


End file.
